The gel films obtained by electron beam (EB) solid-state polymerization of urethane-acrylate prepolymers were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Two kinds of urethane-acrylates were synthesized by reaction of poly (butylene adipate) diol (PBAD), 4, 4′-diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI) and 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA) for this purpose. One is a semicrystalline prepolymer (UA-251M) with a number average molecular weight (
Mn) of 3200, and the other is an amorphous one (UA-071M) with
Mn of 1450. The
Mn varied by changing
Mn of PBAD. UA-251M gel film decreased in glass transition temperature (
Tg) and increased in heat capacity change (Δ
Cp) at
Tg with increasing irradiation dose, while the
Tg and Δ
Cp, values of UA-071M gel film changed in the opposite way to those of UA-251M gel film. Above 5 Mrad, gel fraction reached more than 90%, and the
Tg and Δ
Cp values changed steeply for both prepolymers. This steep change in
Tg and Δ
Cp was attributed to the crosslinking of PBAD chains as well as of terminal acryloyl groups. Since the
Tg change of UA-071M gel film depends merely on the crosslinking, the crosslinking structure was evaluated using two equations which relate the shift in
Tg to crosslinking. The molecular weight between crosslinking junctions was found to be larger than the
Mn, of the prepolymer. The crosslinking by the EB polymerization restricted the mobility of the polymer chain less strongly than the crosslinking by the three-functional isocyanate and α, ω-dihydroxy (polypropylene oxide) with a molecular weight of 1000 did.
View full abstract